Julian Wood
About Julian Wood
Researcher
Julian works on our economics project, primarily examining regional development in New Zealand. With a Master’s in Social Science from Waikato University, Julian brings a depth of experience from his time working as a senior policy analyst for the Department of Labour, where he focused on labour market dynamics, minimum wage and employment legislation, regional development, business dynamics, and immigration.
Most Recent Activity
Good migration policy is about more than just jobs
By Julian Wood
Recent political posturing over partnership visas and arranged marriages is a troubling distraction that derails the real, necessary debates we…
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Review our reliance on temporary workers
By Julian Wood
New Zealanders are heavy users of temporary work migration, so it was disappointing that no-one seriously discussed this last week…
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Checking our climate blind spots
By Julian Wood
When it comes to emissions it is easy for us to obsess about factories and farmers as if these activities…
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Preparing for economic downturn
By Julian Wood
There’s been a lot of recent chat about a possible economic downturn, and many seem to be living under the…
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The pitfalls and priorities of Public Private Partnerships
By Julian Wood
New Zealand has a long and contentious history of private public partnerships (or PPPs). The biggest argument in favour of…
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We can’t afford to sleep on climate risks any longer
By Julian Wood
The story of Rip Van Winkle, first published 200 years ago, resonates deeply with me. I too feel like I…
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Budget reveals wellbeing will cost more than Rules allow
By Julian Wood
The figures announced in last week’s Wellbeing Budget stretches the Government’s self-imposed Budget Responsibility Rules (keeping the level of net…
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Making New Zealand “sexy”
By Julian Wood
In contrast with our apparently “sexy” accent, New Zealand is struggling when it comes to being attractive as a long-term…
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Offering the best of “real” New Zealand
By Julian Wood
We’ve been rightly proud of our country’s unity in response to the Christchurch mosque attacks. But in the weeks following…
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Think Big 2.0: The Provincial Growth Fund risks turning into a fiasco
By Alex Penk
This article was written by Alex Penk and Julian Wood, and first published on The Spinoff on 26 February, on…
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Media coverage of the launch of “A Risk Worth Taking” Policy Paper
By Alex Penk
On the morning of the release of our analysis of the Provincial Growth Fund, our report was featured on the…
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Making the Provincial Growth Fund a risk worth taking
By Julian Wood
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) represents a once in a generation opportunity to support a sustainable future for New Zealand’s…
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Regional Development Policy Paper – A Risk Worth Taking
By Julian Wood
One year into the $3B Provincial Growth Fund, Maxim Institute’s new research A Risk Worth Taking – Ensuring the Provincial…
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Losing All Blacks nothing to fear
By Julian Wood
In a surprise move, a group of the top 1 percent of male New Zealand income earners are appealing for…
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Sabotaging the lifts in New Zealand’s tower of wealth
By Julian Wood
If you haven’t seen the 2018 Side Eye Inequality Tower by Toby Morris and Max Rashbrooke, it’s well worth a…
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Irresponsible lenders on borrowed time
By Julian Wood
While borrowing money at an annualised interest rate of up to 693% wouldn’t appear at the top of anyone’s wish…
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The $64,000 question
By Julian Wood
As my colleague discussed in a recent column, we have to be careful that our desire to punish offenders and…
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Taking the Right Risks for the regions – Newsroom column
By Alex Penk
At the launch of our Taking the Right Risks policy paper, Alex Penk and Julian Wood co-authored a column for…
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Time to take a risk for the regions – Newsroom column
By Alex Penk
To lay out an explanation for the recommendations in our Taking the Right Risks policy paper on regional development, Alex Penk…
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Regional Development Policy Paper: Taking the Right Risks
By Julian Wood
Our previous work on regional development laid out the evidence that large parts of New Zealand are facing a 30 year wave…
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